


Suffer the Children

by fudgeroach



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Childhood Friends, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Trauma, and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates), content warnings at the start of each chapter, ill add tags as i go cause otherwise we'd be here all day, title subject to change if i think of something better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28275591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fudgeroach/pseuds/fudgeroach
Summary: A disastrous accident has left Minnie with no home, no family, and scars burnt deeper than just her skin.Ericson's Residential Institute is a specialist facility dealing with kids just like her, and while all she really wants to do is fade into the fray and ignore the ever growing cold in her chest, one girl with a baseball cap too big for her head and a prosthetic leg keeps ruining that particular plan.---Minnie and Clem are traumatised youths who grow up to realise that the whole world isn't out to get them, and maybe they fall in love along the way.
Relationships: Clementine & Louis & Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine/Minerva (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> cw for this chapter: off screen but heavily implied child death, house fires, burns, smoke inhilation, generally a bad time reguarding fire
> 
> so this isnt my first time attempting to write a big multichapter thing, and im notoriously bad at finishing fics, but i really really love this au and i want to share it with all of you so im takin the plunge  
> this fic is gonna be as angsty as fuck and deal with a lot of heavy issues that im doing my best to research but any feedback and notes on things as they show up is greatly appreciated  
> big massive HUGE shoutout to my friend baph (Havoka on here) for helping me flesh out this au and supporting me writing this thing, i wouldn't have started without ur support and feedback ;w;
> 
> i dont have a set schedule for uploading since im a pretty sporadic writer, but i have the next chapter done at least so ill leave a week or so before posting that one so i can maybe get some more stuff down in time :']
> 
> all that being said, i hope u enjoy the prologue!!

Minerva hissed as the small flame reached her fingers and shook the match out, a thin plume of smoke rising as she did.

She saw Sophie glance up from her own activity - drawing what looked like a dog with the body of an octopus… or maybe an octopus with the head of a dog? It was hard to tell at the angle she was at - and huff loudly as she pulled the piece of paper away from her sister, “Stoooop, you’re gonna ruin my drawing!”

Minnie stuck her finger in her mouth in an attempt to soothe the pain and rolled her eyes so hard she leant back in her cross-legged position, “It’s _fine_ ,” she lisped.

It was a beautiful sunny day outside, the kind that started with the muffled sound of lawn mowers devouring grass and bed sheets having already been haphazardly thrown off from a night thick with humidity. Despite this, the sisters had confined themselves to their room for the time being, the midday sun having made their backyard nigh uninhabitable with how freaking _hot_ it was. They’d ran out of water balloons pretty quickly and their water guns that had been festering away in the garage since last summer were covered in spider-webs so those were a no go. Didn’t help just how easily their pale skin burnt in such weather. Minnie was gettin’ sick of the extra coats of sunscreen. So inside they sat, waiting for the sun to begin its decent in the sky before they could venture back out. Maybe the ice cream truck would be here soon…

Given the heat, it was probably a very dumb idea for Minnie to be futzing around with matches, but an idea being dumb had never exactly stopped her from doing it anyway.

“Where did you even _get_ those from?” Sophie asked, returning to her drawing with eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Minnie dropped the used match into the small pile she’d accumulated with a grin, “Dad’s desk.”

Sophie’s eyebrows shot back up and she sucked in a breath. “Ohhh, you’re gonna get in trouble,” she sang whilst shaking her head.

“No, I’m _not_. And _you’re_ not gonna tell him,” Minnie shot back, sitting up straight with her chin up. She flipped the matchbook over in her hands and admired the design on its front; a bright blue ocean with a strip of beach and stark white hotels to the right, cursive font at the bottom proclaiming the destination to be Cancun. The colouring on the print was faded with age and its edges were fraying into white pulp. It was one of those cheaply made free matchbooks hotels give out, half the time the matches didn’t actually light but that just made it all the more fun for Minnie to get them working.

Minnie and Sophie’s dad had made it perfectly clear he never wanted them snooping around in his desk, but he and mom were in the basement rifling through their junk and figuring out what they could sell or throw out so it wasn’t like he could stop her. Besides, if he didn’t want them looking through it he wouldn’t keep so much cool stuff in there.

Plus, he had a whole plastic baggy full of matchbooks just like this one so its not like he was gonna notice one of them missing.

Sophie shook her head again with a snort, “Sure, I won’t tell him. Then we’d _both_ get in trouble even though _you’re_ the one who did it.”

“Exactly,” she nodded once, feeling awfully proud of her logic.

Minnie pocketed the matches and sighed deeply, resting her elbows on her knees and her cheeks in her palms while watching her sister draw. Even the small amount of contact of her own skin made her itch as sweat started forming. The AC in their room was on its last legs so the whole place felt like a furnace, but at least it was shaded with the large oak tree from their front yard.

Boredom was truly the most nefarious of feelings. She knew, through her intimate knowledge of the TV schedule, that nothing worth watching would be on for at least another two hours, and by that point her dad was probably gonna be taking a break from tidying up the basement and stick on some boring sports show. And she also knew that trying to get Sophie to play with her while she was in the midst of an art frenzy was futile, which overall left very few options for her slowly numbing brain.

Minnie opened her mouth and started patting her cheeks, the hollow, rhythmic popping noise filling the air between them until she stopped just as abruptly and let out another sigh.

This was so _boring_.

And maybe she was playing it up just a teensy bit to get a reaction out of Sophie, but still.

“This is so _boring_ ,” Minnie whined, leaning forward even more until her body wouldn’t fold any more.

“I _know_ , but-” Sophie glanced up and shrugged, “- I wanna finish this, and you’re the one who wanted to come inside. It’s horrible out there.”

“Yeah…” Minnie mumbled.

With a huge amount of effort, Minnie dragged herself to her knees and then rose from the floor.

“I’m gonna see if mom and dad found anything cool in the basement,” She proclaimed with an excited grin.

“Ohh, can you see if there’s any gel pens down there? I’m almost out of colours,” Sophie pouted and gestured to her giant pencil case that had what looked like a million pens poking out of its top. Minnie nodded and turned on her heel, shoes squeaking on the hardwood before she bolted out of their bedroom and down the hall.

She hopped down the stairs one foot at a time, singing out different notes as if each step was a giant piano key, before leaping over the last three with an almighty thud and yelling a deep, discordant note as if she’d just slammed her hands down on a keyboard.

While she loved music, Minnie really hated the guitar lessons she had to do over summer break. Even though she’d asked her mom for weeks to sign her up for them, her tutor was always so mean and grouchy when she got a chord wrong. Although, he _had_ taught her how to play ‘Smoke on the Water’, so that was pretty cool.

Minnie skipped towards the kitchen and veered left into the open doorway that led down to the basement. Upon her descent, she could already hear her parents voices drifting up to meet her.

“Where the hell did it go?”

“I don’t kno- OH! There! Behind that box, I just saw it!”

Minnie’s steps faltered slightly as she reached the end of the staircase and watched as her dad suddenly leapt from one side of their cramped basement to the other, swiping at a cardboard box with the broom. Her mom stood a few feet away, still pointing at the spot her dad was assaulting.

“Uhh, what’s going on?” Minnie asked.

Her mom spun around at the sound of her voice, eyes wide.

“Oh! Minnie, honey,” she started, moving towards her daughter and grabbing her shoulders, “Nothing for you to worry about, but you should probably go back upstairs.”

Minnie felt her mom pushed her back the way she came and furrowed her brow in confusion, “Why? What is it?”

Whatever placating thing her mother was about to offer was quickly cut off by her dad’s frustrated growl.

“God damn rat, is what it is,” he snapped. Her dad huffed angrily and shoved the box aside, apparently not having found the rat in question, “No freaking wonder, it’s a god damn pig sty down here.”

Minnie bit back a laugh at the withering look her mom shot over her shoulder at him. Not that he saw it, still too busy scouring the concrete floor for their little rodent intruder. Her mom turned back to her with a tired smile and continued nudging her back up the stairs, “Look, sweetie, just go back upstairs while we deal with this thing, okay? We don’t want it to bite you or anything.”

Minnie rolled her eyes but let her mom push her back up. She treated them like such babies sometimes. Suddenly, she remembered what Sophie had asked her, “Oh, wait, have you guys found any-?”

“We’ve not even _started_ yet because of this little bastard, so just go upstairs and _stay_ there, Minerva,” her dad snapped and Minnie rolled her eyes even harder.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just in a bad mood,” her mom whispered to her, patting her shoulder gently.

“He’s _always_ in a bad mood,” Minnie shot back, but didn’t press any further. Her dad worked nights, and even when he didn’t he was usually in a foul mood because of all the extra chores he gave himself to do while complaining that he was the only one in the house to actually do any _work_ around here. She was used to his little temper tantrums.

“And lock that door, too. Don’t want the little shit getting upstairs.”

“Okay, honey!” her mom called back, now having escorted Minnie back to the hallway with a small eye roll of her own.

“We’ll smoke this little rat fucker out if we have to.”

“John, language.”

At that, Minnie watched her mom close the basement door and heard the small click as she locked it behind her.

Sighing, now with nothing to do _again_ , Minnie leaned back and thumped her head against the wall.

She stared at the ceiling, eyes tracing the small cracks around the light fixture with lips pursed in thought.

Idly, she reached into her pocket and messed with the matchbook for a second before pulling it out and gazing at the oceanic scene. She vaguely remembered her mom talking about the trip her and dad had taken to Cancun before the twins were born, but otherwise the name didn’t ring much of a bell no matter how hard she stared at it. She continued staring at it until an exciting idea bubbled into her mind and she found herself grinning wildly as she ran back upstairs, taking two at a time.

Minnie ducked into the bathroom and grabbed the roll of toilet paper from the hook and darted into the closet at the end of the hallway, giggling all the while.

She was quickly plunged into darkness when she closed the door behind her, only a sliver of light breaching it from beneath the door. The air in here was hot and dry; it made the sweat on her skin instantly dry up. She didn’t bother to reach for the dangling cable that would turn on the light and instead plonked herself down on the floor amidst the winter jackets and cardboard boxes, shuffling her weight from side to side in an attempt to get comfortable.

The match fumbled in her hand for a moment as she swiped it against the striking strip, the flimsy thing refusing to light several times before finally sparking to life and illuminating the cramped space.

“Ohh, I’ve been out in these woods for so many weeks,” Minnie narrated, using the feeble glow of the match to see as she ripped apart the toilet paper into a small mound in front of her.

“The nights are so cold. The food is so scarce!” she wailed, but the grin stretched on her face gave away the excitement of what was to come next, “But this bonfire should help. Ohh yes, just one night of warmth in these cold, cold woods.”

Every 4th of July, Minnie and her family would venture to the local park and watch the firework display with all the other families and kids from the area. But by far, Minnie’s favourite part was when the organisers would light the giant bonfire at the end and start serving out food from the barbecue while she and Sophie would roast marshmallows with the other kids. Her and Sophie had begged their dad to have their own bonfire one year and he’d outright refused, saying it would completely ruin the grass in the backyard and that was pretty much the end of it.

Minnie dropped the lit match on the pile of toilet paper and couldn’t help the excited giggle as she watched it catch alight, illuminating the space even more.

She rubbed her hands together and held them over the “bonfire”.

If her dad wasn’t gonna make one, she could make one herself.

“Ah, yes, perfect,” she continued, shimmying slightly to find a better sitting spot, “The wolves won’t bother me tonight, not with this fire!”

There had been plenty of PSA assemblies about the dangers of playing with fire at her school. Plenty of stern faced adults lecturing wide-eyed kids about how you should never, _ever_ play with matches or lighters without adult supervision, but Minnie hadn’t liked those assemblies. She didn’t like how boring they were or how long they were or how gross the pictures on the slide show were. Besides, Minnie wasn’t _dumb_. She knew fire was dangerous, _obviously_. Minnie wouldn’t make the same mistakes other kids would make. She wouldn’t let her bonfire get out of control.

Minnie ripped up some more toilet paper into messy strips before tossing them on the fire and watched in glee as the apex of it’s height rose and rose and rose with the added fuel.

She stopped smiling when it brushed against the sleeve of her dad’s thick, woollen coat and caught it.

“Ah, crap,” she muttered, shoving herself away from the flames and grasped around for the door handle without her eyes leaving the pile. The door swung open and the added light made Minnie feel slightly better about the predicament as she started stamping on the lit paper with her shoe in an attempt to put it out.

But the fire had already spread. To the coat, to the box of gloves and hats stored away until winter came.

“Ah, _crap_ ,” Minnie repeated, voice wavering in slight panic.

She sprinted to the bathroom and snapped the faucet on, cupping her hands under the cold water so she could carry it. By the time she’d returned, water dripping from her small hands, the fire had grown to encompass the entire closet. Despite knowing it wasn’t enough, she flung the water in her hands onto it anyway and felt the pit in her stomach open into a chasm.

“Oh no, oh no no no…” she chanted, feeling the tell-tale prickle of tears stinging her eyes.

 _A bucket_ , she thought suddenly, her feet already trampling down the stairs, _there’s a bucket in the garage._

She had to get this under control before her parents found out, before Sophie found out.

Her hands were shaking as she threw the garage door open and slapped the light on. Her eyes blurred with panicked tears as she searched for the bucket and quickly found it next to the faucet for the hose. They were still shaking when she turned it on and started filling the bucket at an agonisingly slow pace. Minnie sniffed and swiped at her eyes, “Come on, come on, please, please…”

Her gaze darted from the slowly filling bucket to the doorway, as if she’d find her fathers shadow looming in, bellowing at her as to what the hell she was doing.

Part of her wanted him to so he could get this under control for her. An adult to come save her from her own stupidity.

Minnie yanked the hose out of the bucket, not even bothering to turn it off as she hauled the half filled bucket up and waddled back to the door with it. She wouldn’t be able to carry it full.

As she rounded the corner, her blood turned to ice in her veins.

Minnie stared, unblinking, the cold hand of panic gripping her heart like a vice, and saw that the fire hadn’t kept itself confined to the space of the closet. It licked at the ceiling and walls, charring the white paint to a sooty grey. She stood there for what felt like an eternity in paralysed fear before her feet shunted forward of their own accord and water sloshed noisily onto the floor. She could hear the crackle and pop of the flames eating into the wooden structure of the house and, after cresting the top of the stairs, threw the now measly looking amount of water onto the flames.

When they did nothing to even stagger them, Minnie burped out a sob and sprinted down the hall to her room and slammed the door open to find Sophie still drawing on the floor, now looking up at her with a mildly started look on her face.

“Minnie? What- Are you crying?”

“Sophie, we have to go, I-” Minnie hiccuped and cast another quick glance at the fire as it advanced, “There’s a fire, we have to get out of here!”

“Wh- A fire? What?” Sophie looked more puzzled than alarmed and Minnie wanted to scream and cry at her with how slowly she rose to her feet. Minnie shot forward and grabbed her sister’s arm, dragging her to the doorway and pointed into the blaze. Sophie’s eyes widened and she stumbled back and away from Minnie at the sight, and Minnie absurdly felt somewhat better that someone else knew about what was happening.

“Oh, no… Minnie, what did you _do_?” Sophie whimpered, hand covering her mouth as a haze of smoke started to fill their room.

Minnie’s face crumpled and she grabbed fistfuls of her hair, “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen, we just need to get _out_ of here, _please_!”

“I- yeah, yeah, okay, just… give me a second, okay?” Sophie said and held her hands up in a ‘wait here’ motion. Minnie blinked and felt some degree of annoyance as she watched Sophie start to cram her pens and pencils back into her pencil case.

“What are you doing?!” Minnie squealed, standing in the door frame and feeling the heat start to lick at her face.

“I-I just need-”

“Forget that stuff, oh my god, it doesn’t _matter_!”

“It matters to _me_!” Sophie yelled back, sounding close to tears herself.

Minnie looked over at the fire again and felt herself choke on whatever she was about to say.

The fire had eaten through the ceiling and she could see it fully eating away at the rafters above. The creaks and groans were louder now and Minnie looked directly up and saw the ceiling above her bellying out, cracking with the strain.

“Sophie, please come out here now,” Minnie said, her voice suddenly quiet, as if the mere vibrations of her voice would make the roof fall faster.

“Just wait, I-”

“Sophie, _now_!”

The cracking was louder. The roof was falling.

“ _Sophie!_ ”

“Okay, I’m coming, I’m-!”

The cracking reached a crescendo and Minnie flung herself backwards instinctively the second she saw the cracks above her shift. With an almighty crash, the wooden beam above their bedroom splintered down, already ablaze. Minnie’s arm came up to block her eye’s from the splinters that shot towards her and she cowered away.

After a few seconds, she lowered her arm and stumbled to her feet on shaky legs, but stalled midway up.

Minnie stared in frozen horror at the rafter currently blocking her bedroom door.

What was _beneath_ the rafter.

The flames were licking at her face now, singeing her hair and sending an acrid smell into her nose amidst the smoke. None of that was really registering though. Her feet were planted firmly on the floorboards and even as the fire quickly consumed the wallpaper and sparse family photos dotting the landing, Minnie couldn’t be sure if the tears streaming down her face in a torrent were from the smoke burning her eyes or her immeasurable fear.

Sophie stared up at her, blinking in confusion as to why her body had stopped moving, as if it had ceased on its own accord and wasn’t registering the weight of the wooden beam currently pinning her to the floor.

And then, all at once, it did.

Sophie screamed and the sound pierced its way into Minnie’s brain. She realised absently, pointlessly, that if she survived this it was a sound that would haunt her until the day she died.

Mindlessly, she shot forward and grabbed her sisters arms tightly, pulling with all the strength her panicked 10 year old body could muster but all it seemed to do was draw an even shriller scream from her.

The smoke was even thicker now.

It coalesced in her lungs like a heavy liquid and violent coughs blitzed her already hoarse throat. She dropped Sophie’s arms and instead rammed her shoulder against the rafter and heard her own pained hiss as the smouldering wood burnt her skin but it didn’t stop her.

“Minnie, please god, help me! Don’t leave me here, please! _”_ Sophie cried beneath her, but for how muffled it sounded she may as well have been a million miles away.

Minnie shoved and shoved at the beam and realised fairly quickly it was pointless.

She couldn’t move it, and she couldn’t pull Sophie out.

As she yanked herself away, Minnie stared down at her arms and barely flinched at the angry blisters bubbling up there.

It all felt like _everything_ was happening a million miles away, actually.

Her eyes unfocused and travelled down to meet Sophie’s again. Her twin was weakly clawing at the hardwood, tear tracks marring the soot building up on her face.

Sophie shook her head madly at whatever expression Minnie was currently sporting.

“N-No, please, Minnie, don’t give up, please,” Sophie weeped, “Try and pull me again, something!”

“I-” she started and was immediately interrupted by another bout of coughing. Her feet were itching restlessly towards the staircase, “I’ll get dad! I’m getting dad, okay? He can lift it!”

Whatever her sister’s response to that was immediately got lost as Minerva pulled her thin shirt over her nose and spun on her heel to begin making her way down the staircase. Their dad could lift it. He could definitely lift it. In the time it had taken for her to try pulling Sophie from their room, the fire had edged its way downstairs and was now engulfing the living room. Their couch was the centrepiece, fire having consumed it entirely and quickly spreading to the surrounding furniture.

“Dad! Mom!” Minnie yelled, fighting against her own lungs for air.

Her blistered arm came up to wade at the thick, black smoke and every breath made her throat and lungs burn in agony.

She didn’t know how close she was to the basement door, but all at once she stopped dead when a new sound hit her.

Heavy banging on wood and the unmistakable sound of her parent’s panicked voices through the wall.

They’d locked the door behind her, she remembered suddenly. They’d locked the door from the inside.

Three sets of voices, all sounding a million, billion, trillion miles away, screaming for her to help them, to do something. Minnie stayed rooted to the spot, her brain sending every kind of self preservation instinct speeding through her mind.

“ _-nnie, please come back, I can’t-_ ”

“ _-ropped the fucking key, how the fuck did you drop the k-_ ”

“ _-ophie! Minnie! If you can hear me, call the fire departme-_ ”

“ _-nnie!_ ”

“ _-ucking hear you, they’re upstairs, you dumb bi-_ ”

“ _-this smoke coming from, Jesus Chr-_ ”

“ ** _ **Minnie!**_** ”

Her skin felt tight. Like it was recoiling from the fire without her. Like it was trying to get away from her as she stood there, useless and frail in the hallway as the fire she’d started ate her home.

Minnie registered the voices of her family, but not what they were saying. Not really.

She wanted to help them, but it was with a dawning sense of numbness she realised she couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough to lift the rafter still pinning her twin to the floor, she wasn’t strong enough to barge the basement door down and free her parents, and it was starting to feel like she wasn’t even strong enough to save herself. She must have though, because Minnie quickly realised she was no longer making her way towards the back of the house, but shuffling in a daze towards the front door.

The smoke was so thick. She couldn’t see _anything_.

 _Smoke out the rat_ , she thought numbly. That’s what her dad had said, right? Smoke out the rat.

Her hands smacked against the front door. With one hand she banged against it, panic coursing through her like electricity while the other felt around for the latch to open it.

Eventually she must have because it swung open and Minnie found herself falling forwards, the smoke that had been quickly enveloping her billowing out into the atmosphere.

Her scorched palms fell against cool grass and even outside of the house she could feel blasts of heat pawing against her back.

Another voice entered the fray.

“-irl! A girl just came out!”

Minnie’s whole body heaved with coughs and she crawled forward, away from the heat and the fire and the smoke and towards a light summer breeze that barely registered on her blistered skin. She fell onto her back and continued coughing and heaving and stared blankly at the clear blue sky above her. She just couldn’t catch her breath.

Somebody was grabbing at her shoulders, pulling her further from the house, and Minnie didn’t have the strength or willpower to stop them. She just kept coughing.

Whoever had grabbed her rolled her onto her unburnt side and the new angle allowed her to fully see the carnage she’d caused.

Fire had blown out the windows on the top floor and was peeling the paint as it slithered up the side of the house. Against the backdrop of a picturesque sky, the sight was jarring.

“Hey? Hey! Are you o-? Oh god, she’s burnt really bad, please get here fast, please.”

Minnie kept her blurry eyes on the front door.

Maybe someone else would get out.

She kept coughing.

She could hear sirens in the distance, getting closer, but she kept staring at the front door.

She was still staring when the fire brigade got there and started unleashing torrents of water into the windows.

She was still staring when the ambulance got there and an unreasonably calm first responder slipped an oxygen mask over her face.

She stared as long as she could, waiting, hoping, for another figure to come stumbling out of the flames.

But nobody did.

As the doors to the ambulance closed and Minnie felt a numb sort of acceptance wash over her, only then did her eyelids droop down and the peace of unconsciousness take her.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> since ive posted this story and my other clemerva story, the response has been really positive which im so happy about!! i didnt think they were gonna get as much attention as they did so thank yall so much ;w;
> 
> i PROMISE clems gonna be here soon...... in the chapter after this one in fact  
> just gonna get that good ol' set up out the way, yall know how it is  
> (also i s2g the word counter on my word processor is broken, it always says theres way more words than there actually is smh)
> 
> cw for this chapter: some talk about minnies burn scars, she has a bit of a panic attack, nothing else i can rly think of
> 
> enjoy the chapter!!

“Minerva.”

The voice of the man across from her was soft but firm, but Minnie couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge him. Instead, she continued picking at the skin around her nails and pulling the sleeves of her sweater lower.

The walls of the room were painted a non-threatening cream colour and a dark brown carpet tiled the floor. Whatever homey feeling the muted colours were supposed to inspire was counteracted by the blindingly white lights inset into the ceiling. Minnie allowed her eyes to raise from the desk, past her social worker, and up to the roof. It was that cheap, square panel stuff she’d seen in every community centre and classroom she’d set foot in. The back right corner had a water damage stain blooming on it.

She’d been unconscious for a while after getting to the hospital, apparently. Not that she remembered any of that particular drama.

The doctor told her she was lucky, actually. Lucky to be alive, lucky to have survived after inhaling so much smoke, lucky to have gotten out of the blaze with the only burns on her body being the ones wrapped up her left arm and shoulder.

Lucky, indeed.

The man sighed quietly and Minnie almost felt bad about forgetting his name considering how often she’d met with him the past month, but that’s just how her mind felt these days. New information just kept drifting away from her, like she was stuck in the transition between dreaming and conciousness and nothing quite made sense. That was better than the alternative though. When her thoughts and memories spiralled her into a quaking, shuddering mess and it felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the entire universe that could alleviate the gaping sadness in her chest or the heady sobs that ripped out of her.

Yeah, she’d take numbness over that feeling any day.

With some amount of effort, Minnie managed to drag her unfocused eyes from the brown stain on the ceiling and looked at the other occupant of the room.

He was a guy with a kind face and receding hairline. What hair he had left was greying and grew down into some well trimmed side burns. He also had this habit of wearing clothes that made him look like a pre-school teacher and Minnie wondered if it was some kind of attempt to seem less threatening. Today, it was a thick woollen sweater that looked tight around his pot belly.

The man was giving her a cautious look; the exact same look everyone had been giving her since she woke up in the hospital over a month ago. Usually it was mixed with some other emotion to keep things spicy, like pity, or a brief flash of disgust some adults could barely contain once confronted with her burns, or even one occasion when a younger kid visiting someone at the ward she was staying on burst into tears at the mere sight of her.

The social worker’s was caution with a mix of that almost sickening compassion she’d come to expect from his gaze.

Upon meeting her eyes, however, it shifted to something closer to pity.

“Minerva,” he repeated, “I know this situation is awful, and I’m so sorry someone as young as you has to deal with such a great loss, but now that the doctor’s are saying you’re healed enough to leave their care, it’s time for us to talk about what happens next for you.”

It wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard from the social worker before and even still the reality hadn’t quite set in about what it all meant. Her home was _gone_. Her family were _gone_. Minnie breathed in sharply and fought a wave of shivers ripping through her body. She really, really didn’t want to think about that right now… or ever again, actually.

Minnie’s eyes fluttered as she dropped her gaze again, this time to search for the lanyard around the man’s neck.

_Walter._ His name was Walter, now she remembered.

“Okay,” Minnie replied, voice cracking somewhat but otherwise saying monotone.

Walter nodded slowly and Minnie really wished he’d stop staring at her like that.

“We’ve been trying to see if you have any other relatives who could take you in, but, uh… that isn’t quite an option.”

She almost laughed at that, honestly. What a strange way to say all her other family was dead.

She already knew that, of course. Her grandparents on her dad’s side had passed away before she was born, and her other’s had also died when she was really young. As far as she was aware, all her immediate and extended family were either dead or so estranged she didn’t care to know them in the first place.

Slowly, as if trying not to startle a wild animal, the man leant down and shuffled around in his bag, the sound of papers getting crumpled and shifted aside filled the mostly silent air. There wasn’t even a clock in here to fill silence with its ambient ticking. With Walter out of her eyeline, Minnie’s eyes unfocused again and she stared at the table through blurred vision.

Walter rose but she couldn’t bring herself to focus on him again, much preferring this version of the world with its soft edges and muffled sounds. Walter must have realised this too because he simply placed a flyer on the table between them and slid it into Minnie’s line of sight.

His voice was soft as he spoke, “I work very closely with a place called Ericson’s. It’s a group home for kids who are eligible for foster care or adoption. They often take in special cases, like you, Minerva.”

He’d said her name again like it was going to get her attention, but all Minnie could focus on was how the word ‘adoption’ sent a bolt of ice through her stomach.

“Okay.”

Walter sighed quietly and Minnie could see his blurry shape stoop lower to try and catch her eye, “I’ve worked with a lot of kids, Minnie. I know this is hard-”

Unexpectedly, the use of her own nickname made a spike of annoyance pierce her chest.

“Minerva,” she corrected.

“Sorry?”

Minnie’s mouth pulled taught in annoyance for several reasons and she raised her glare to Walter, “Don’t call me Minnie, just Minerva.”

Walter raised his hands slightly off the table and spoke like he was talking down someone on the verge of jumping off a bridge, “Okay, that’s okay, I’m sorry.”

Through her own confusion about the reaction to her nickname, another brand of annoyance made itself known. She was getting really sick of people telling her how they ‘know its hard but blah blah blah’ and whatever other placating bullshit they wanted to feed her as if they had any idea what she was feeling. As if their own families were dead because of them.

There was a beat of silence before Walter carried on, “A lot of the kids I work with who go here get brought into new homes fairly quickly, and you’re a smart, creative girl. You won’t have to worry about being here long, okay?” Walter tried to end on a positive lilt in his voice and Minnie fought the urge to roll her eyes or scream or do something about the bubbling well of frustration opening up in her chest.

“...okay.”

Walter smiled at her, though it didn’t quite meet his eyes, and nodded as he slowly rose and picked up his bag.

“I’ll be taking you there tomorrow, okay? Around noon and we can go get some lunch.”

Minnie nodded and looked away again, this time at the flyer on the table, hoping to find literally anything else in this room to focus on other than the emotions brewing inside her like a horrible stomach ache. It was a plain looking thing, though she couldn’t imagine how they could make a place like this look inviting. The words “ _Ericson’s Residential Institution_ ” were along the top in bold font and below it was what she presumed to be a picture of the ‘residential institution’ in question. There were some details dotting the bottom; a phone number, an address, a… fax number? This place still used faxes? Minnie grimaced at just how ancient this place must be.

She heard the door open and Walter’s muffled voice relay something to the nurse outside.

After a moment, the nurse came in and smiled at Minnie while gesturing at her to follow her back to her bed.

Minnie rose and grabbed the flyer, crushing it in her fist as she crammed it into her back pocket and kept her eyes down as she followed the nurse. Subconsciously, she grabbed her wrist and ran her thumb over the raised burn scars marring her skin. The skin was still sensitive, but at least it wasn’t causing her so much pain anymore.

That was something.

* * *

The building before her looked even more cartoonishly old than the picture.

It was all brick, for starters. Red brick, the kind every old building in the area sported along with a plaque of some kind explaining the historical importance of the site. The cast iron gates leading into the grounds were a tad much, she thought, making it look more like a prison than a nurturing environment for kids.

Walter had walked a few steps ahead but kept casting glances at Minnie over his shoulder, like she was gonna make a break for it or something.

_And go where, exactly?_

She _was_ surprised by how small the place looked on the outside, though. The building was fairly tall, but narrow, and the small stretch of courtyard leading up to the main entrance was about to be covered in a few strides. She _also_ noticed the thick barbed wire roped around the top of the already impenetrable brick walls.

She had a nasty feeling that was about keeping people out as much as it was about keeping people in.

Walter pushed open the large wooden doors and stepped aside, gesturing for Minnie to enter first with a sweep of his arm and a soft smile, “Ladies first.”

Minnie felt a tingle of something uncomfortable in her belly at that but managed a thin smile anyway and hurried past him into a musty hallway.

Somehow, it looked even older inside.

The ceilings felt unnecessarily high and she had to actually crane her neck to fully take it all in. The paint was cracked, pieces flaking away to reveal the plaster underneath and Minnie felt a growing pressure in the back of her head telling her the roof was falling again. She shook her head sharply at that particular thought. Nope, definitely not thinking about that right now.

Walter, now seemingly convinced she wouldn’t run off now they were inside, was already making his way up the stairs that were, surprisingly, making no loud creaks and groans as he did. Distantly, Minnie could hear the sound of other kids talking and shrieking from further into the building. She trailed after Walter, tracing her hand idly along the wooden panelling decorating the walls to avoiding looking at the ceiling again.

Walter was waiting for her at the top and this time, he ghosted a hand behind her back and led her across the landing to another set of wooden doors, “Now, before we show you where you’ll be staying we just have to go over some things with Mr. Ericson, okay?”

He smiled reassuringly at her as they got closer to the doors and Minnie could only manage a weak nod before he pushed the doors open and she found herself stood in front of a huge desk with a heavyset man sprawled behind it. She suddenly had a sinking feeling about this entire arrangement just by the plastic looking smile beneath his blonde, thick moustache.

“Ah, Walter, good to see you again,” he rumbled, standing to an intimidating height and reaching over to shake Walter’s hand.

Walter smiled politely and nodded back at him in greeting, “Same to you, Tom.”

Minnie kept her eyes low and quickly sat herself in one of the chairs in front of the desk. As predicted, they were incredibly uncomfortable and Minnie scowled as she tried to shimmy herself into a better spot before looking up through the long strands of hair that had fallen into her face. The desk was so big she could barely see over the top of it from the chair.

Ericson sat back down in his chair with a sigh held his hands clasped together on the desk, leaning forward to look at her over his glasses. Minnie shifted in her seat again.

“And you must be Minerva,” he stated, voice low in what she guessed was supposed to be a reassuring tone but sounded more like a hiss. She nodded and averted her eyes again. In her periphery, she could see Walter turn his head towards her slightly, but kept her eyes glued to the big knot of wood just under the lip of the desk. Her lack of speaking was probably going to make whatever this was about much harder but she found herself lacking the will to care. She just wanted to be alone for a while.

Ericson sighed and leaned back, his leather chair squeaking. Whatever delicate tone he was trying to use replaced with something sterner, “I’m terribly sorry for your loss, Minerva, but before we can get you settled in, and due to the circumstances of you being here, we have to go over something very important.”

Oh, she did not like the sound of that. Not one bit.

She could physically feel the atmosphere in the room thicken. Her shoulders bunched up by her ears and her eyes darted from side to side, seeing nothing in the wood of the desk but trying desperately to find something other than one of the men’s faces to look at. Already her stomach was shuddering with how much she hated this whole situation, how much she wanted to just be left in a room, alone, to cry and scream and do something to alleviate the tension in her gut that hadn’t left since she’d woken up in the burn ward.

Minnie gripped the arms of her chair and the silence stretched on for seemingly hours. Reluctantly she raised her eyes and saw Ericson shoot a quick glance at Walter before continuing bluntly, “We’re going to be monitoring you for the foreseeable future. For your own safety, and the safety of the other children here.”

Blinking owlishly, Minnie slowly sat up and felt her eyebrows furrow in confusion, “…what?”

Ericson cleared his throat, seemingly uncomfortable with whatever expression was on her face but not uncomfortable enough to drop the flat tone he was now speaking in, “Due to what happened with your original home and your involvement, we’ve been advised by the state to keep and eye on you. It’s a safety precaution.”

Minnie continued staring.

She understood the words, sure, but nothing he was saying made much sense. It felt like her brain had been replaced by a wasp nest and he’d just shaken it up, the buzzing in the back of her mind slowly building.

Minnie knew what she’d done, and she knew through listening in on conversations she wasn’t supposed to hear while pretending to sleep that some people had apparently thought she’d started the fire on purpose. It wasn’t true, of course it wasn’t true, but the thought that people were out there thinking she’d done all of this by design sent a wave of nausea rolling through her stomach. She tried to swallow down the tight knot formed in her throat but she just couldn’t.

Feeling a pressure on her arm, the scarred arm, Minnie jumped, yanked it away, and snapped her head towards Walter. He looked almost embarrassed, moving his hand away from her like the heat of her panic had scorched him. Whatever comforting gesture he’d hoped to provide was very much not appreciated.

“Your wellbeing and health is out top priority,” Ericson continued, as if that made this any better, “we’ll have a longer chat about what that means for you after you’re a bit more settled, but for now we just wanted you to know.” He gave her smile that didn’t meet his eyes and made his moustache bunch up.

Minnie didn’t reply. The buzzing in her head felt much louder now and she could barely hear him mention something about going over some of the more general rules before she zoned out completely.

His voice took on that muffled quality she’d become accustomed hearing when her head started shutting down.

Whatever fantasy she’d had about being able to just find a quiet place to be alone with her thoughts, no matter how much they hurt to think about, had already been shot in the neck. The added thought that people were thinking of her as a… what, a murderer?

The word sent a cold bead of fear down her spine.

Her hands gripped the armrests even harder and were it not for the rush of blood in her ears, she was sure she’d be able to hear the wood creaking from the pressure.

Minnie realised, not for the first time since waking up, that she wanted Sophie to be here.

And wasn’t _that_ a can of worms.

Even just thinking her name hurt.

Every time she thought about her sister the only memory that came to mind was those last few moments; the last few moments of agonised screaming and wide eyed terror on her sister’s face that, just as she’d knew at the time, had etched themselves into her brain with the permanence of a branding iron. It made her chest hurt to think about, and that coupled with the noisiness of her mind and just how tense her entire body had become was making sitting in this room, listening to just how different her life would be now, harder and harder.

Minnie wanted her sister here to hold her hand, or link their arms, or bump her shoulder with that carefree laugh and tell her to stop worrying so much and that everything was gonna be okay, but it wasn’t going to be okay and Sophie was dead and she wouldn’t be doing any of that ever again.

Inhaling sharply through her nose, Minnie slammed her eyes shut to try and stop the familiar stinging in them.

_Don’t think about it._

“Minerva.”

She clenched her hands tighter.

“Minerva, are you okay?”

She was decidedly not okay at all, but in all honesty the thought of bursting into tears in front of these two men sounded horrific. So instead, Minnie waited a moment for the angry buzzing in her ears to dissipate, her hands to release the armrests from their grip, and her eyes to slowly open.

They remained focused on the desk, but she could see both of the men in her peripherals staring at her.

She sighed deeply again, shoulders finally drooping.

“Yes.”

The other two looked at each other, clearly not believing her.

Walter leaned towards her again, “If… you need a moment, we can-”

The nausea in her stomach bubbled into irritation and she leaned away from him with a scowl, “I said I’m fine.”

“...okay then.”

* * *

Minnie trudged after Walter down a hallway. The rest of the meeting had mostly been a blur and the little information she’d overheard was thrown into some dusty corner of her brain, soon to be forgotten. If it was truly that important, she’d learn it all again soon enough.

She adjusted the strap of her backpack, the thing holding what few belongings she had left, and kept her eyes on the floor as she walked.

It was hard to believe everything she’d ever owned was gone now. All her clothes, her toys, hell, even her guitar she hated practising hadn’t survived. As far as she knew, Minnie herself was the only thing to make it out of the house that day. The only stuff in her backpack were clothes given to her by some charity at the hospital and most of them were too big for her gangly body.

“One of these rooms, I think…” Walter said, seemingly to himself if his mumbled voice was any indicator. His pace slowed as he surveyed the cluster of doors before them and rubbed his chin. The sound of other kids was louder now and Minnie was sure she’d be meeting some of the owner’s of those voices soon enough. She flinched away from the door closest to her as a loud bang emitted from it, followed by a shrill laugh.

Walter stepped forward and gave a jaunty knock on one of the doors, the one she presumed had her roommates behind it. There was a beat of nothing before a young girl’s voice called out, “It’s open!”

Walter looked back at her with kind eyes as he pushed the door open and Minnie couldn’t find the energy to even fake a smile back, so just stepped forward into her new room.

Inside was a boring affair. Two bunk beds pushed against opposing walls with a dresser between them. Minnie quickly cast her eyes right and saw the profile of a rather large wardrobe nestled in the corner of the room. The walls were beige, the floor was hardwood, and there was a frayed looking rug pinned underneath most of the furniture. The overall vibe of the room was so utterly boring and pedestrian, she couldn’t even bring herself to be excited about the prospect of bunk beds, which was something she and Sophie had always begged their parents to get. Minnie pressed her lips closed tighter.

Atop the rightmost bunk was a girl with cropped hair and her lips already curled into an expression bordering on disgust. Minnie noticed, with some degree of jealousy, she had an acoustic guitar across her lap. On the bottom bunk under her was another girl wearing cat eye glasses and a vacant look in her eye. She hadn’t looked up at her and Walter’s entrance but just from looking at her, Minnie somehow knew this girl didn’t react to much so didn’t take it too personally.

Walter allowed Minnie to pass him as he loitered in the doorway and she suddenly felt completely out of her element.

Her eyes darted from the girl on the top bunk to the girl on the bottom before drifting to the completely unoccupied bunk across from them and making a beeline for it without waiting for Walter to introduce her.

“Hey, girls, sorry for interrupting you two,” Walter said warmly, though it didn’t look like either of the other girls had been doing much prior to their arrival, “but I’m just here to help your new roomie get settled in, okay?”

The top bunk girl shrugged and plucked a few strings on the guitar, “Whatever.”

Minnie scowled and climbed up the first few rungs of the bunk bed’s ladder, throwing her backpack onto the sheets. She wasn’t exactly expecting a warm welcome, but being outright dismissed by two girls barely older than her felt irritating.

There was this awkward moment of silence where Walter seemed to realise he wasn’t going to get much more out of Minnie’s new roommates and he cleared his throat after a moment. Minnie climbed onto her new bed and lay down, staring straight up. The ceilings were high, though she guessed that just how old buildings were. She heard Walter’s footsteps draw closer to her but continued staring up, her eyes roaming the surface for imperfections in the plaster.

“I’ll leave you to get comfortable. I’ll be back to see you tomorrow and we can talk through what’s going to happen in the future, but if you need me for anything, they have my number so you can just ask anyone to get in touch, okay?” His voice was low, soothing, and right next to her head, but Minnie couldn’t bring herself to move her gaze towards him just then.

She sighed softly through her nose, “Okay.”

“Okay,” He repeated quietly and tapped the metal frame of the bed twice to signify the end of this one sided conversation.

She heard his footsteps recede and a quick goodbye to the other occupants of the room before the door clicked close behind him. The silence felt heavy in her ears before a few clumsy chords played from that acoustic guitar in the other girl’s hands.

Minnie sighed again and rolled over to face the wall.

“Are you a mute, too?”

The question was clipped with irritation and Minnie frowned at the wall. She rolled over again and sat up to glare at the girl across from her, “What?”

“I said, are you a mute, too?” The girl spoke slowly, like Minnie was stupid for her confusion, and rolled her eyes.

Minnie scowled at the attitude and shook her head, “Obviously _not_.”

The other girl nodded and went back to strumming out a random tune on the guitar, “Good, ‘cause if they’d stuck me with another girl who didn’t talk I was gonna go crazy.”

The sound of guitar was starting to get on Minnie’s nerves, especially since it was obvious the thing was out of tune and the girl didn’t really know how to play it, “Who says I want to talk to you anyway?”

The girl looked up and Minnie noticed how dark her eyes were. She scoffed, “Because you’re other option is to try talking to Sarah here, and she doesn’t exactly say much.”

Glancing down at the bottom bunk, Minnie noticed the bespectacled girl’s lack of response to her name and felt a pang of worry.

“Is she… okay?”

The unnamed girl shrugged again and Minnie was really starting to dislike her attitude through all this, “She’s upset ‘cause her dad’s dead, but both _my_ parent’s are dead and you don’t see me being a huge freakin’ baby about it.”

Minnie winced and felt her eyes widen. The fact this girl could talk to brazenly about her own parent’s deaths felt like a slap in the face, not to mention how quick to was to talk about Sarah’s own history without remorse and her eyes shot to the bottom bunk again only to see no reaction from the other girl. If anything, that just made the churning in Minnie’s gut worse. The lack of reaction was scarier than if she’d started crying at the mention of her father’s death.

Having noticed her looking, the other girl scoffed and leaned forward to look over the edge of her bunk and towards the girl below her, “She doesn’t care, okay? She never reacts to anything.”

Minnie highly doubted the girl was okay at all, but found she didn’t have the energy to fight her about that.

“I’m Becca, by the way,” she said, finally introducing herself, “What’s your name?”

Scowling, Minnie sat up fully and crossed her legs, leaning back against the wall, “Minerva.”

Becca snorted, “That’s a grandma name.”

“It _was_ my grandma’s name, so shut up,” Minnie snapped back.

Becca, seemingly caught of guard by her sudden annoyance, blinked at her and looked away without replying and instead started plucking at the strings again.

Minnie felt that familiar well of annoyance open inside her stomach and the thought of having to share a room with this girl only added to it’s depth. She hoped she’d be out of here soon enough, but then realised the only way she’d be getting out of this room any time soon would be because she’d been taken in by a bunch of strangers through adoption. The thought of that just made her chest hurt, so she tried not to think about it.

The strumming was really getting to her.

“Stop doing that. It’s not even in tune…” Minnie snapped causing Becca to jump and play a discordant note.

Becca looked up at her and then down at the guitar, a flustered expression on her face, “It’s not?”

“No, it’s not. Is that thing even yours?”

Becca huffed and looked embarrassed, “Well, no, not really. It’s from the rec room, but no one here knows how to play so I just… brought it in here. No one seemed to care, so…”

It was Minnie’s turn to roll her eyes. A silence fell over the trio then, but it only lasted a moment before Becca cleared her throat.

“Do…” Becca started, “I mean, could you tune it for me?”

Becca grabbed the guitar by the neck and hung it over the side of her bunk over the chasm between their beds and towards her. Minnie pursed her lips and looked between the instrument and Becca’s averted eyes. She leaned forward and grabbed the body of the guitar with both hands, dragged it onto her bed, “I can _try_.”

She remembered her guitar tutor telling her that if she wanted to properly tune a guitar, she had to use a special gadget for it, but she’d seen him tune his own guitar by ear several times so she figured it couldn’t be that hard to guess at.

Minnie settled the instrument in her lap and started plucking the lowest string and messing with the key until it sounded about right. Better than it was before at least. The longer she spent on her task, the more absorbed she became, the discordant note’s slowly beginning to sound right again soothed her greatly.

“Hey,” Becca called, jolting Minnie out of the trance she’d put herself in.

She looked up in mild annoyance and saw Becca staring at her neck.

“What’s, uh…?” Becca began, gesturing towards her own neck with a wave, “What’s up with your ne-?”

Minnie felt her blood run cold, whatever relaxation she’d started to feel immediately turning to stones in her belly.

“None of your business,” Minnie said, voice sounding hollow even to her own ears.

Becca, for how flippant she seemed to other’s misfortune, went silent at that and Minnie felt something akin to relief at the gesture.

Before she went back to tuning the guitar, Minnie tried in vain to tug the wide collar of her sweater over the burns marring her neck.

She strummed at the D string and tried not to notice Becca’s dark eyes boring holes into her skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOP minnies new roomies are becca and sarah, who woulda thought it  
> i wonder whos gonna be taking the bunk below minnie,,,,, really is a mystery i tell ya
> 
> thank u for reading tho!! i hope u enjoyed this chapter so please hmu with a kudos or a comment if ur so inclined ;w;  
> (also check out my other clemerva story, "Take the Shot", if u like canon divergence aus and enemies to lovers, i think itd be right up ur alley)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading yo!!  
> any kudos of comments are Super appreciated, but the fact u made it to the end of the chapter in the first place is a win in my book


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